Last Night of the 2010 Festival of New American Plays Held Tonight

The final performance in the 2010 Festival of New American Plays will be held at 7:30 p.m. tonight at the Firehouse Theatre, 1609 W. Broad Street in Richmond, Virginia.

Tonight's show will be the second staged reading of "American Pastime" by Mike Folie, which was rescheduled from Saturday due to inclement weather. This play is one of two finalists in this eighth annual national playwriting competition. The other finalist is "The Jag" by Gino DiIorio.

Audience members who attended at least one performance of each play will decide the winner after tonight's performance. The playwrights will be in attendance.

A $5 donation is suggested; students are free with ID.

The Firehouse Theatre Project is proud to present its 2010 Festival of New American Plays.

This eighth-annual, national playwriting competition will conclude from Thursday, Jan. 28-Sunday, Jan. 31 at the Firehouse Theatre at 1609 W. Broad Street in Richmond.

Two plays have been selected as this year's finalists from nearly 200 entries submitted by talented playwrights from nearly every state in the country. Two staged readings of each play will be presented over the four-day festival with the winner being decided after the final reading on Sunday, Jan. 31, by persons who attended performances of both plays.

This year's two finalists are: The Jag by Gino DiIorio of New York, N.Y., and American Pastime by Mike Folie of Congers, N.Y. Longtime Firehouse associates Irene Zeigler and Bill Patton were the finalist judges.

American Pastime is based on a lawsuit against Major League Baseball filed by black players seeking the right to become free agents. Mr. Folie was chosen one of "50 Playwrights To Watch" by Dramatist Guild magazine. His plays have been produced off-Broadway, regionally around the U.S., and internationally, winning several awards.

The Jag is about a father and son who enlist a quirky lesbian to help them fix up an old Jaguar. Mr. DiIorio is an award-winning playwright and teacher whose work has been produced off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally. He is an associate professor of theatre at Clark University where he also serves as theatre program director.

The festival schedule (revised due to inclement weather) is as follows:

- Thursday, Jan. 28 - "American Pastime"
- Friday Jan. 29 - "The Jag"
- Sunday, Jan. 31 - "The Jag"
- Monday, Feb. 1 - "American Pastime"

All performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. and be followed by a discussion including the audience, actors, and director.

A $5 donation is suggested; students with valid ID will be admitted free.

About the New Plays Festival and Playwriting Contest:
In keeping with the Firehouse Theatre's mission of promoting new work by American artists, the Festival of New American Plays began in 2002 as a way to encourage and incubate new plays by established and emerging playwrights in the USA. It has become a grass-roots event with substantial involvement from the community, as hundreds of scripts submitted to the Playwriting Contest from all over the country are read by volunteer readers from the Greater-Richmond area. Each script is read twice (more if it needs a tiebreaker), and scripts with "two thumbs up" are passed on for further evaluation to an expert panel of judges, who then pick two finalists for a four-night Festival "showdown." Members of the festival audience who have seen staged readings of both finalists' works cast a vote for their favorite play, and the winner of the festival is chosen by the public. Festival winners receive cash prizes.

2011 Festival Submissions Being Accepted Through June 30, 2010

The Firehouse is now accepting submissions for the ninth annual Festival of New American Plays. Please read the Rules for Submissions.

Previous Festivals:
2009: Playwright Evan Guilford-Blake of Atlanta, Ga., was the winner of the 2009 festival for his play An Uncommon Language.
2008: The winner of the Sixth Annual Festival of New American Plays was Richard Willett, for his script Tiny Bubbles.
2007: Fifth Annual Festival's surprise ending - a Tie! Sharing the joint honor of first place were One Fine Day by David Rush from Chicago, Illinois; and Grace by Sharon Sharth of Pasadena, California.
2006: Fourth Annual Festival winner achieves auccess in New York! Winner Frawley Becker's play Tiger by the Tail made the great leap from the Firehouse Stage straight to Off Broadway! Tiger by the Tail opened at the Wings Theatre in New York City on March 24th, 2006.

Finally, Firehouse Festival of New American Plays 2009 runner-up and talented playwright Caridad Svich is making a name for herself in New York City, having adapted Isabel Allende's novel of magical realism, The House of the Spirits, for the stage. Directed by Jose Zayas, Svich's play opens in New York City on Wednesday, Feb. 18, at Repertorio Espanol's theater, and runs through June. Yes, Richmond knows talent when she sees it! We predicted it wouldn't be long before we heard from Svich and winner Evan Guilford-Blake again! Read the full New York Times article, "Staging Latin American Magical Realism, Complete With Songs".